Rockets To Make All-Out Push For LeBron James
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The Houston Rockets will make an all-out push to sign LeBron James, according to sources.
James is expected to opt out and one rival executive gives him a 40 percent chance of leaving the Miami Heat.
If the Rockets are unable to strike a deal with James, they will turn their full attention to Carmelo Anthony, while Chris Bosh is another option.
The Rockets have a promising guard-center tandem in James Harden and Dwight Howard, along with solid role players such as Chandler Parsons, Patrick Beverley and Terrence Jones.
Texas also has no state income tax, which gives the Rockets an advantage over some teams in terms of the player's financial package.
Sources say the Rockets are confident they can create cap space by trading away Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin without taking back salary in return.
Surveying the LeBron Landscape
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/surve ... landscape/
Let’s assume LeBron opts out and considers some suitors who can contend immediately and offer a reasonable salary without any complex cap machinations. Any fits?
Houston Rockets
The same general principle holds true here: If Houston has a series of transactions lined up that would free it to chase Melo, the identical domino effect would allow it to chase James. The fit here might be a bit more awkward, though Houston, unlike Chicago, has embraced small-ball lineups over the past two seasons.
Dwight Howard is strictly a paint player, and it’s harder for LeBron to find maneuvering room on the block if there’s another behemoth standing (along with his defender) just across the paint. That’s especially so because James loves to turn toward the middle, draw defenders, and kick to open shooters.
Howard soaks up a lot of possessions with his own post-ups, and James Harden loves to jab-step away before and after running high pick-and-rolls. But greatness eventually trumps fit issues. We ranted and raved about the skill overlap between James and Wade in their first season together, but they came within two wins of a championship.
By the way: Note the number of teams that would have to dump salaries to chase the league’s elite free agents. This would seem to present a nice opportunity for teams with cap room to extort the desperate dumpers. But there are so many teams with cap room, the extortion process might not yield more than a second-rounder or two. We’ll see.
Five fits for LeBron James
Spurs headline ranking of NBA teams that would best suit King James
ESPN Insider
1. San Antonio Spurs
2. Miami Heat
3. Los Angeles Clippers
4. Golden State Warriors
5. Chicago Bulls
Teams not making the cut
Cleveland Cavaliers: While a homecoming could warm the cockles of even the coldest-hearted LeBron hater, the Cavs' roster has yet to take shape, they have no coach and there's that letter owner Dan Gilbert wrote four years ago.
Houston Rockets: Teaming with an elite big in Dwight Howard and elite wing in James Harden is similar to what he did in 2010. Unfortunately, Harden is similar to Wade defensively, as well, and it doesn't help that the Rockets play in the toughest division in basketball.
